Why Obasanjo’s voice does not, and can’t matter

Those endowed with wisdom say we should ‘learn to separate the message from the messenger.’ This is by no means good advice especially when being confronted by or with a message from former president Olusegun Obasanjo. He is one character who has completely lost it. He lacks merit, credibility and moral right in the political space of this country. The only thing that remains for him is the inalienable right to have his say. But Nigerians reserve the right to choose what to accept of him, or from him.

Against this background, I hereby respond to an article in Daily Trust’s The Thursday Column entitled “Why Obasanjo’s voice still matters” by Jideofor Adibe. The columnist justified his standpoint by enumerating his reasons. He sees Obasanjo as “the best the country has produced.” In my view, this singular assertion in his write up clearly shows that Adibe is either not a good student of history, or he wants to distort it. How can a leader driven by personal interest rather than national interests be adjudged to be the best that the country has produced? It simply defies logic.

Obasanjo is a man heavily indebted to Nigeria for a number of reasons. He lived and benefitted from the true Nigerian dream. He rose from a nobody and enjoyed the life of rising to a general and a head of state at public expense. Similarly, we sponsored his personal salesmanship across the globe with no concrete gains to the nation. This privilege that he blatantly abused qualified him to brag about it at the Presidential Library commentary that tells visitors about his world travels. It announces the mileage coverage of his global travels which is equal to three or five (I cannot recall) trips to space. Can you imagine the cost to Nigeria? Moreover, the nation spent its resources in the failed efforts of securing the position of the United Nation’s Secretary General for him. He was even taken from prison, without a penny, to be made president by those who believed in him. What did he do to pay back the Nigerian system?

Adibe thought Obasanjo “left monumental legacies – from lifting university from abject penury with a quantum salary increase to the introduction of National Health Insurance, the GSM, encouraging internet penetration, banking reforms, securing debt relief for the country, to creating the ETF (now TETFUND).” What is critical for Adibe is to render accounts of how much was expended in the processes of the listed legacies against the personal interests been served. Also, how much of our commonwealth was wasted under Obasanjo’s watch? Please remember to include the $16 billion Obasanjo claimed to have spent for provision of electric power to the nation. Is Nigeria free from power outages now or before he left office? What is the consequence to the economy and the quality of Nigerians’ lives? Obasanjo is absolutely guilty of squandering our riches without offering us value addition.

My main problem with Adibe’s position is that he even conceded that the nation needs “voices that are courageous and credible enough to stand up to the strongman in power.” True. But the problem is, although Obasanjo has ‘courage’ I do not believe he is credible. He dramatically tore his PDP membership card and vowed never to look the way of PDP. But where is he today? He called his former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, uncomplimentary names and claimed to have distanced himself from the persona forever. How are they today? For an elderly man like Obasanjo to be so unstable in standpoints, means his credibility is compromised.

According to Adibe, Obasanjo’s interventions are “to the delight of citizens who are already cowed.” Again, this is true. Obasanjo certainly has the barometer of gauging the pulse of the nation before dropping his epistles. But what are the motives behind all Obasanjo interventions? You will find them to be consistently self-serving. I strongly believe we should not serve Obasanjo interest anymore. Nigerians have done too much for one person. So, Nigerians must know and realize that Obasanjo blew his chances to be of any tangible use to the nation when he was the ‘strongman in power.’  He was the first to be given the task of leading the nation twice in the history of our nation. Besides, he demonstrated his lack of capacity to deliver Nigeria to the “Next Level” when he had those two golden chances.

Interestingly, some actions taken by Obasanjo portrayed him as a clear despot tele-guided by non-altruistic intentions. He usurped the supremacy of the People’s Democratic Party by assuming the party leadership against any democratic principle and the political structure. Consequently, the ‘strongman’ terminated office terms of duly elected party leaderships and even some executives of states’ administrations were humiliated unduly, for daring to turn out of his favor. He singlehandedly hoisted Umar Musa Yar’adua/Goodluck Ebele Jonathan PDP ticket to serve his personal interests. Even when leaving the presidency, Obasanjo paved way for himself to remain in charge as the PDP Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Indeed, with numerous examples, he was known for total disregard for the “rule of law.” Remember how much of Nigeria’s commonwealth was wasted trying to sell Obasanjo’s third term agenda? Of what value was that to the nation?

The Presidential Library is a reckless project. First, the use of office by a serving president to collect donations from individuals and corporate bodies for the project is totally wrong. It is simply an act of corruption. Secondly, about 1,000 staff of the Library are mainly from the ‘strongman’s’ tribe. They should have reflected national representation as Adibe wishes to make us believe that Obasanjo is a detribalized person. Also, the mobilization of national treasures into the Presidential Library complex is fraudulent. They include: the bullet-proof vehicle bought with tax payers’ money to secure the Pope during his visit to Nigeria; the Biafran bridge that facilitated the end of the Nigerian Civil War; service vehicles of Obasanjo; military service helicopter and the letter of Biafran surrender to end the Nigerian Civil War. All these should be at a National Museum that is in control of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN).

In the recent letter written by Obasanjo, he writes about the eminent danger of rigging the 2019 elections. He states: “Democracy becomes a sham if elections are carried out by people who should be impartial and neutral umpires, but who show no integrity, acting with blatant partiality, duplicity and imbecility.” I wonder whether he was reading the inglorious script acted by Professor Maurice Iwu of the INEC that produced PDP as winners of the 2003 and 2007 elections, under Obasanjo presidency, that stand out as Nigeria’s worst and anti-voter elections. These, and more, make it imperative for Adibe to know that Obasanjo’s voice does not, and cannot, matter.

Abdulkareem writes from Kano.